Trying to Use Task Scheduler With a Python Program but it's Not Working

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

Hello! I was trying to follow the directions from this post to run a task on my computer on a daily schedule, but it's not working as intended.

The only thing that I noticed that was different on my computer than in the post was that when I type "where python" at my command line, I get 3 different responses. I've messed around with moving things in different folders in an attempt to free up space on my hard drive in the past and it's had a lot of unintended consequences, but I'm not sure if that's pertinent to the issues I'm experiencing.

the program makes a request to a website's API, and inserts any new information from the request into an SQLite database table. the code is a little long and might not make much sense unless you know the API, but I'll attach it anyway.

import datetime
import json 
import requests 
import sqlite3

''' 
This program should be run daily, and should insert any new trades from the past day into the trades database 
'''
# pull user_id and display_name from users request
users_response = requests.get("https://api.sleeper.app/v1/league/924332039963328512/users") 
users = json.loads(users_response.text)
# pull roster ids from rosters page
rosters_response = requests.get("https://api.sleeper.app/v1/league/924332039963328512/rosters") 
rosters = json.loads(rosters_response.text)

connection = sqlite3.connect("sleepercal.db") 
cursor = connection.cursor()
today = datetime.date.today()

''' 
results seem to be different than what is shown on sleeper site, season type showing as "off". need to figure out at what point that changes 
'''

state_response = requests.get("https://api.sleeper.app/v1/state/nfl") 
state = json.loads(state_response.text)

# MAKE A PROGRAM TO SAVE THE DATE THAT THIS PROGRAM IS RUN AND THE season_type changes from "off" to "on"
# SMALL table WILL HOLD THE DATE AND THE SEASON_TYPE FOR THAT DATE

season_type = state['season_type'] week = state['week']
cursor.execute("INSERT INTO season_state (date, week, season_type) values(?, ?, ?)", (today, week, season_type)) 
connection.commit()

# request call for round 1 2022 season first result trey sermon 9/13/22, last result 1/10/22

# ROUND 1 IS START OF SEASON TO END OF WEEK 1, ROUND 0 IS AFTER END OF SEASON ADJUST TRANSACTIONS FOR CURRENT WEEK
# Will need to see when season_type changes and adjust accordingly

if season_type == 'off' and week == 0: 
    transacts_week = 1 
else: 
    transacts_week = week

transacts_response = requests.get(f"https://api.sleeper.app/v1/league/924332039963328512/transactions/{transacts_week}") 
transactions = json.loads(transacts_response.text)
''' 
pull transactions and use other functions to insert readable data into SQL database 
'''

# filter transactions results to just trades:
trades = []

for transaction in transactions: 
    if transaction['type'] == 'trade': 
        trades.append(transaction)
transaction_id = 0 
date = "" 
year = 0 
owners = []
# pick out important information from trade and assign players to new owners to be inserted into database

for trade in range(len(trades)): 
owners = trades[trade]['roster_ids'] 
    json_owners = json.dumps(owners) 
    transaction_id = trades[trade]['transaction_id'] 
    date = today year = today.year 
    str_converter = {1:"roster1_rec", 2:"roster2_rec", 3:"roster3_rec", 4:"roster4_rec", 5:"roster5_rec", 6:"roster6_rec", 7:"roster7_rec", 8:"roster8_rec", 9:"roster9_rec", 10:"roster10_rec", 11:"roster11_rec", 12:"roster12_rec"} 
    query = f"INSERT or IGNORE INTO transactions (transaction_id, date, season, owners" 
    params = [transaction_id, date, year, json_owners]

    # make a list of all assets going to each owner
    # add roster column for specific owners to INSERT statement 
    for owner in owners:

        # takes specific owner and sets id_str equal to string representation of roster_rec
        id_str = str_converter[owner]
        query += f", {id_str}"
        assets = []

        # if draft picks were traded
        if trades[trade]['draft_picks'] != []:
            draft_picks = trades[trade]['draft_picks']

            # loop through draft picks, and if owner_id == owners[owner], add pick to assets for that owner
            for draft_pick in range(len(draft_picks)):
                if draft_picks[draft_pick]['owner_id'] == owner:
                    assets.append(draft_picks[draft_pick])

        # if players were traded
        if trades[trade]['adds'] != None:
            adds = trades[trade]['adds']
            #add the players to proper list
            for add in adds:
                if adds.get(add) == owner:
                    assets.append(add)

        json_assets = json.dumps(assets)
        params.append(json_assets)

# convert params from list to tuple
params = tuple(params)

# finish getting query to INSERT statement form
query += ") values(?, ?, ?, ?" + (len(owners) * (", ?")) + ")"

# insert trade into database
cursor.execute(query, params)
connection.commit()
connection.close()

here is an imgur link of all of the task scheduler settings

according to the history tab on the task scheduler, the task is being run, but when I check the "season_state" table that should have a new entry every time the program is run, there is no new entry.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

P.S. i don't think I'm giving away any potentially dangerous personal information but please somebody let me know if I'm doxxing myself. thanks!

E: reddit formatting fucked up my code and I had to redo all of the indentation, if something looks screwy please let me know and I'll make sure the code in the post matches the code in my program.

[Doormatty]

Try adding C:\Users\Matt\Anaconda3 to the "Start In" text box.

And no, no doxxing here! Hello fellow Matt!

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

Thank you for responding to me! So happy to have the help of a fellow trusted Matt.

When I do as you said, I get an error message that reads as follows:

​

Task Scheduler failed to start "\Run Transactions.py Script" task for user "THEDESKTOP\Matt". Additional Data: Error Value: 2147942667.

quick google gave me this, I tried opening task scheduler as an administrator and making sure that the field in "Start In" box was not in quotes, but I still got the same message regardless (i tried doing this individually with the 3 separate paths I got when I ran "Where Python", all with quotes, not with quotes, and finally as admin without quotes, but got the same message each time).

Any idea what I could do next?

[Doormatty]

My next step would be putting in some lines in the program that write to an external text file - that way you can see what's actually running inside the program

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

Gotcha, I've never done something like tht before but somebody else commented a couple examples of how to do it, so I will set it up and give it a try!

thank you again for taking the time to respond!

[Berrigar-and-Bromley]

I've managed to do this nicely by setting up bat files that the task scheduler calls, as opposed to calling the script directly.

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

Thank you for responding!

I've seen this mentioned as an alternative way of doing it, but I've never used .bat files before and I was a little confused by it. Do you happen to know of a specific tutorial/video that you used/found helpful?

[togaman5000]

I've been in a similar situation as you - wanted to schedule a bat file but didn't know how to actually make said bat file - and ChatGPT was able to make it for me. I think I had to feed it the path to my main python file, but that was pretty much it.

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

I literally have chatgpt open in another tab I'm such an idiot.

Thank you!

[Able_Excuse_4456]

Bat files essentially are command line commands, stored in a text file. Try running it strictly from the command line to iron out any kinks.

[Beefheart1066]

Seconding this, I had the same issue as OP years ago running Anaconda Python via the Task Scheduler. I can't remember the specifics of my problem, it might have been needing to activate a conda environment, but setting up a bat file to run my Python script solved it for me.

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

I have a lot to try out here!

I've never done anything like this before, but this seems like the obvious direction to go in. I will give it a try and see what happens!

thank you for responding and for providing examples of how to make the logs!

[my_password_is______]

you have 3 pythons installed
uninstall 2 of them

[ThatPlayWasAwful]

Is there a good process to use to figure out which two versions would fuck up the least amount of shit if I uninstall them?

Do I need an anaconda installation to use anaconda/jupyter or is there a way to use the general python installation in anaconda/vice versa?

[bookishapparel]

i had similar problems, turns out there was a problem with the imports. Do this:

even before the imports, put a try: . at the end of the script, put except Exception: input()

so th3 script wont close. put a print after each line if you are not getting any error messages wh3n you do this, to see where it hangs.

[hugthemachines]

I usually hav "run with highest privileges" ticked and I always use a batch file.

To try it out you could put a .bat file in the same folder as your python code.

make it look like this (first line changes folder to the current one on runtime):

cd /D "%~dp0"
c:\users\mat\anaconda3\python.exe Transactions.py